Matt Tuiasosopo trip report

Chris Fetters

12/08/2003

Matt Tuiasosopo took his second official recruiting visit, to Washington this past weekend. With
one official, to UCLA, already under his belt, this was a chance to get to know everything he
didn't already know about the home school. How did it go?

"It was fun, I had a good time," Matt told TheInsiders.com Monday evening. "It went well. I got
a chance to talk to the coaches and the other recruits there. And my parents came with me, so
they got a chance to talk to the coaches too."

Was there any thoughts of 'been here, done this' for Matt, considering the fact that he's probably
been on Washington's campus more than some students? "I can't take it for granted that I know
what I need to know, especially with the academics," he replied. "I got a chance to talk to the
academic counselors there, which was good."

Matt came into this visit with one main objective. "A big goal of mine on the visit was just to try
and get to know Coach (John) Pettas better," he said. "He's the quarterbacks coach and the
offensive coordinator and I hadn't really got a chance to know him. Getting that chance was really
good for me. I got a good feel for him as a coach and as a person.

"We talked about a lot of things, about football and other things. You can tell that, outside of
football, he really cares about his players. I got a chance to meet his whole family and he
talked about how he takes his quarterbacks over to his house every week. And you can tell that
he really knows a lot about the game of football. And I also talked with (host) Casey Paus about him
too, and Casey had a lot of good things to say about him. He's a good coach and a good guy."

Paus gave Tuiasosopo the inside dirt on playing under Pettas. "It was good to be with a guy that's
going through the program right now and playing under Coach Pettas," Matt said. "He knows what it's
all about right now."

So what was the main difference between the visits to Westwood and Montlake? "The main difference
was that at UCLA, there was a game going on," said Matt. "There wasn't a game at
Washington this weekend, so that meant I got to spend a lot more time with the coaches."

Tuiasosopo has a top-three. "I've narrowed it down to three schools - Washington, UCLA and USC, and
they are all pretty equal right now," he said. "I don't have a date set to visit USC, but I've talked to the
coaches there and they know I want to visit."

Here are Matt's thoughts on each school:Washington - "It's the relationships. I've known a lot of the coaching staff since my sister (Leslie)
went there. I really like the coaching staff there. And even though they didn't have a good
year this year, they can bring it back up. My family is here and I just really like the college."

UCLA - "I like Coach (Steve) Axman. I got to know him when he was at Washington and I've
worked out for him before. I also like Coach (Karl) Dorrell a lot."

USC - "They are doing awesome right now, and they also have great coaches, with Coach (Pete)
Carroll and Coach (Norm) Chow. They are in the top-three. It would be hard to pass on them."

Baseball is something that's been discussed and handled by each school Matt is looking at. "I've spoken
with all of the baseball coaches and they say that they can make it happen for me," he said. He will
probably play in the infield, definitely a fielding position.